Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy made a very impassioned plea for local newspapers. There is no doubt that they have been very severely impacted, obviously by the collapse in their advertising revenue, the greater difficulties in circulation, and I suppose by the migration to online media sources. That has certainly been aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Government has stepped in.

Many of those newspapers are receiving the temporary wage support scheme, which has helped them to keep their staff together and be in a position to recover and rebuild.

I am very conscious that the whole media world is changing very rapidly under the impact of the changed ways in which people communicate and absorb information. It is highly related to age. People under a certain age have a completely different attitude towards newspapers. They use sources that are not the conventional linear broadcast media. This is posing a huge challenge for the quality of public service media. For this reason, the previous Government appointed Professor Brian MacCraith to look at this concept. While he is primarily focusing on public broadcasting, his terms of reference also include the wider media. It is important that the Dáil consider how we ensure the quality of news coverage and journalism, even as the methods through which people receive media change so rapidly. We cannot pretend that we can continue as things are because people are voting with their hand-held devices to absorb their media in a different way. We need to think very deeply about this.

Any takeover of a newspaper will be judged by the Competition Commission and by my Department in the context of plurality. Concentration in the market and the plurality of information available are both examined. I cannot give the Deputy an answer as to why any particular takeover was approved but the reasons will be on record as each case will have gone through the process that has been put in place.

I will revert to the Deputy on broadband for Tipperary.

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